"Question: "What is the human soul?"
"Answer: The Bible is not perfectly clear as to the nature of the human soul. But from studying the way the word soul is used in Scripture, we can come to some conclusions. Simply stated, the human soul is the part of a person that is not physical. It is the part of every human being that lasts eternally after the body experiences death.
The human soul is central to the personhood of a human being. As George MacDonald said, “You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul."
A soul is required for personhood. Scripture suggests that the human soul is distinct from the heart [Deuteronomy 26:16; 30:6] and the spirit [1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12] and the mind. It can be strong or unsteady, lost or saved. It is the soul that needs atonement to rest.
There is often confusion about the human spirit vs. the human soul. In places, Scripture seems to use the terms interchangeably, but there might be a subtle difference. When the Bible talks about man’s spirit, it is usually speaking of an inner force which animates a person in one direction or another. It is repeatedly shown as a mover, a dynamic force."
(If you ask what I think, here's what I'd say: Whereas the spirit is divisive in terms of feeling mean spirited, here while feeling kind spirited, there, the soul remains at one with itself, suggesting why a troubled soul feels need to inspire an inquisitive mind to seek insight into deeper truths (based in experiential wisdom stretching back through history across the time line) until our sixth sense signals our intelligence to solve puzzling situations by piecing bigger pictures together, until such time as a soulful need to blend logic with compassion fills the conscious portion of a person'sawareness with such a flood of humility as to sweep the defensive needs of the ego aside, and as wisdom knows to sprinkle patience, here and there, a mounting sense of frustration tends to subside, and once a person's conscious awareness absorbs this recipe, which blends self-discipline with solution seeking creativity, a peaceable attitude, concerning the implementation of a step by step approach to change for the better may begin to be imperceptible to every eye except for the eye that has been consciously trained not to wander too far from the path where the soul feels most at peace ... and since the defensive nature of the ego is not easily restrained for very long, wisdom suggests that we each need a trusty guide, whose mind proves well trained to inspire our intelligence to cautiously but steadily carve the next leg of this path, which offers our souls the existential freedoms necessary to satisfy basic human needs in such creative ways as to offer the insight-driven mind The ability to co-exist peaceably with those whose defense systems blind their intelligence from identifying the depths of their repressed despair of ever seeing their way out of the darkly cloudy, fear-based maze that separates mind, heart and spirit from feeling wholesomely at peace with choices that are souly their own to make. )
It has been said that ... the soul is imperishable. That thought should be both sobering and awe-inspiring. Every person you meet is an eternal soul. Every human being who has ever lived is a soul, and all of those souls are still in existence somewhere. The question is, where?"
(Perhaps this is why some believe in the soulful nature of reincarnation ... not by replicating the same body but suggestive of the undying soul, being absorbed during an innocent infant's first breath of life after which each new born spirit cries aloud, voicing an innate independence from the human body that had hosted the formation of a brand new life. BTW: If you'd think to ask me what I think causes the divisive nature of the human spirit, I'd suggest we reconsider the fact that Mother Nature created two opposing sides of human nature - the dark, defensive side, driven by the impatience of an egocentric fear of failure vs the bright side, which, being energized by sparks of courage, ignite our desire to explore ever more deeply into that which is, as yet, unknown - and as both sides of human narure vie for space within every person's thought processor, our spirits sway, back and forth tweet fear and courage until intuitive thought, stimulated by an unexpected experience, creates unrest within a mind that suddenly feels a compelling need to explore a self reflective path, which makes better sense of the confounding maze, created by the previous generation, which had misguidedly believed their opinions to be facts until someone's path crosses paths with an old soul, who feels eager to guide those who remain open minded to see that there's more to learn than we can hope to absorb in the brief time that each body is allotted to live on planet Earth. And knowing that our busy brains tend to forget thousands of facts, which have been stored in memory, we, who are fortunate to cultivate a sensitivity to open mindedness will, one day, come to trust a guiding soul, who does not tire of clarifying creative ways to better our lives, because the conscious mind of this old soul will have (for some intuitive reason) become highly trained to offer up strings of insight, gently and repeatedly, and thank goodness, each mind, which feels inspired to follow one of these guides, tends to pass insight driven guidance on to the next generation, and in this way do progress and change for the better partner up as the future unfolds.
Perhaps feeling soulful proves to be the antithesis of the ego's need to feel safe by usurping control over thought processors, which are not our own. On the other hand, that's not to say that the old soul, versed in need to satisfy basic human needs, all around, is in need of seeking sainthood to feel like a good soul, because that wouldn't free a person's conscience to live a well balanced life, right?
Perhaps the defensive needs of the ego and our soulful desire to create change for the better, within reason, create the sense of balance that is missing from far too many lives ... and if you believe, as did Anne Frank, that every person is good, deep inside, perhaps, Anne, in her youthful, inexperienced innocence, was intuitively referencing each person's soulful 'potential' to be steered clear of the dark side of life, which brings to mind my belief that adults, who are not completely blindsided by fear, do not grow too old to coax their defensive reactions to sit in time out, thus freeing a sense of inquisitive intelligence to quest toward knowing both sides of their nature ever more deeply so as to influence each next generation to create change for the better, throughout the world, by grasping a soulful (intuitive) understanding of how best to continue to tap into the bright light of The Force that naturally shines forth at birth from within every innocent child, and in this way will today's positively focused guides steer children to develop into tomorrow's leaders, who will seek to direct each next generation to appreciate the blessed state of soulful togetherness more than had proved possible of the last ... And with that said ...let's hope that my next post reflects the pictorial of familial friendship that I consciously and purposefully chose to pass to our sons, each of whom is in the process of role-modeling and verbally coaching the conscious minds, belonging to Tony, Ray and Ravi, to absorb the same positively focused energy that creates heartful and spiritual bonds though they may be separated from each other by hundreds of miles as each develops into a mindfully patient and loving adult, and once time permits me to assemble and post the family pictorial that serves as soul food for one who proves as family-minded as is true of me, hopefully, we'll see my storytelling hat floating gently down from on high until it centers itself lightly on my head, at last ...)
Here stands an innocent child, wearing a jaunty hat, which covers the fact that her sweet spirited mind feels so deeply confounded by adult reactions (as they try but fail to hide the depth of their pain from each other and themselves) as to induce her intuitive soul to compel her adult mind to set out on a quest in search of her lost sense of peaceful repose by imploring her thought processor to develop the existential voice of self assertiveness, which had retreated, fearfully and submissively, in the darkly confounding aftermath of her baby sister's tragic death ... Note that this sweet natured child's arms are bandaged from scratching incessantly as her innate intelligence itched to reach beneath the surface of conscious awareness until her repressed need to know and express her true self with clarity felt so clearly exposed as to inspire her sense of courage to seek help, and over time, as fear gave way to understanding, her visceral reactions to shouldering the weight of undeserved guilt (which had caused so much repressed emotional pain as to have actually drawn blood) healed ... And in light of the fact that an intuitive force runs as deep within a person's insightful soul as does ocean life, which exists in layers that run fared ever that which the fisherman's eye can fathom, is there any wonder as to why my instinctive need for clarity of verbal expression inspired my soulful quest to recapture my natural sense of inner peace so that all of me (heart, spirit, mind) feels at one with both sides of my humanness just as my soul feels at one with itself ...
(Note that upon whitening my face
my nose disappeared, suggesting that as I consciously choose quest ever more deeply into my soul, the less nosy my ego feels whenever a witches brew of gossip is cackling through the air ... And if you think I had any conscious clue of penning any of this upon awakening, today, please think again, because all I can say for sure is that each time the kind hearted side of my spirit reminds my mind to adopt a positively focused attitude, which offers others the benefit of the doubt, my soul feels wholly at peace and the rest of me follows ...)
As for now, the fun-loving portion of my spirit is propelling the rest o me to ready this old soul to go to Steven's house, armed with veggies, humus and skinny popcorn, where the self assertive portion of my voice plans to cheer, along side the men, for my very own choice of team ...
BTW ... Yesterday's quiet solitude turned into a playdate with a sweet natured, free spirited, little soul (whose adventures with socialization have barely begun) when Steven called, asking if I was free to enjoy several hours with Ravi, and I have no doubt that my son sensed a sparkling smile, shining forth from my pleasure center when his mother's strong-spirited voice conveyed a whole-hearted YES!
And each time I feel a mutually supportive sense of loving connectedness nourishing souls, all around, it stands to reason that all of me feels well-balanced, healthy, peaceful and well fed ...
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